Where is My Happiness?
by SmashQueen
Summary: Waking came slowly, naturally, as if he had been asleep for a long time. Prompt Fill.


Love the game. Still want that SAVE DLC, though.

Part of a collection of prompts that I decided to upload by itself.

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The woods were silent as he staggered back up the mountain, the cold body of his sibling in his arms. The humans had been relentless in their assault, throwing rocks and cooking pans and whatever else they could grab. The brave and perhaps the angriest had charged at him, wielding spears and pitchforks. One had even a rusty shovel.

He had smiled then. Chara had been wrong. They had been wrong! Humans weren't so bad, not if they would band together to attack someone who they thought had killed one of their own.

Even if it was him that...

Agony lanced their SOULs. Asriel stumbled, his grip tightening on Chara's body. He couldn't - wouldn't stop. Not until they were both home. No matter how much the other screamed, begged, pleaded, and flung insults, he didn't stop, he didn't let his control slip. As much as it pained them both, as much as they had sacrificed and were sacrificing still, Asriel didn't have it inside him to harm anyone.

Well. He did, sort of. But he wouldn't allow it to happen.

Their cries were hysterical. All the planning, all the heartbreak their parents had endured. All for nothing as he trudged back to the barrier, and passed right through it.

Chara's attempts to take back control were like little fists against his back. They both knew the form wouldn't last.

One foot in front of the other, Asriel steadily made his way through the corridors until they opened up into a sparsely lit room of colorful flowers.

_Home. _

Asriel sighed in relief, grip loosening on the corpse as he collapsed. Faintly, he thought he saw his mother and father, faces stricken as his vision faded. He couldn't be sure. He wouldn't ever be sure.

Darkness enveloped him.

Then, there was warmth. And he opened his eyes.

Waking came slowly, naturally, as if he had been asleep for a long time. He felt oddly well-rested without any aches or pains. The humans, he remembered. How was he healed? How was he alive?

Sunlight filtered down through the holes in the mountainside, casting warm rays upon the garden of oddly golden flowers. Like the ones in the village. Where were his parents? Where was Chara? He couldn't feel their SOUL anymore.

Asriel moved to get up from the bed of flowers, to see what had happened, but nothing so much as twitched. Not a toe. Not a finger.

He froze and looked down. Fear filled him.

He had no _legs. _

He had no _arms. _

He was just a stem and – and…!

Asriel screamed, crying out for his mother. Then his father, tugging at his roots in the ground. Then for somebody, anybody.

Alone with only birdsong, Asriel wailed. He called out, voice ragged and cracked.

But nobody came.

Time stretched on. It was minutes, it was hours, maybe even days. Would he ever see them again? And Chara… He had _failed _his sibling. Not in killing the humans, but in stopping their plan before it ever launched. If had said something, just one word, it would have all stopped and they would be here right beside him, making that scary face and playing games, and he wouldn't somehow be a _flower, _and mom and dad would hug him and love him and-

"Golly. Are you alright?"

Asriel hiccuped and looked up and further up still. Towering over him, then bending down on one knee, was the King of All Monsters. Asgore.

"Dad!" he sobbed. A taunt of "crybaby" echoed from his memories. "Dad! It's me, Asriel!"

His father blinked slowly, uncomprehending. "Asriel?" He slowly shook his head. "I don't understand..."

"I - I don't either!" The words tumbled out of the prince's mouth. "A-after Chara d-died, I took their SOUL then carried their body past the barrier and down to the human village. I placed him on a bed of flowers…but then there wa a loud scream, and they were so angry! They thought I had killed them, dad! They thought I had killed Chara!" Asriel sniffled. His father's face was a mask of horror.

It was the same look that had appeared on some villagers' faces before they began attacking.

But Asriel was unable to stop the flood now that the gates were open. "They started throwing things at me and hitting me, so I took their body and came back. I made it back through the barrier, then everything went black and I woke up here!" He wilted, so very exhausted. "You have to help me, dad..."

The alarm had grown with every word said, but the final plea snapped Asgore out of it and into something more somber.

Asgore reached for him, and carefully wrapped one arm behind him and put his massive head beside his own. A mimicry of one of his tight hugs. "There, there," he said, lightly patting the back of Asriel's head. "Everything is going to be alright."

The boy sniffled. "Thank you…" he said.

They stayed like that for a long while, father and son reunited. Though, as much as Asgore's voice was full of kindness and encouragement and support, Asriel was only confused. He didn't say it out loud, but the reassurance and the love for his father that he should have felt, was oddly missing. He thought of his mother's snail pie and warm hugs, and his father's strong arms and proud smile.

Still, there was nothing.

Maybe, he thought, it was shock. He was numb. It wouldn't last for long. He would feel again in no time.

His father pulled away and said he would go get a pot and a trowel to dig him out. Asriel nodded, and accepted the offer. As the king rushed away, Asriel once more reached for that warmth he had always lived with. Love, happiness, the bubbly feeling that everything was alright.

It was still missing.

Asriel let out a shuddering breath and shook his head.

He would feel again in no time.


End file.
